Land That Earns Its Keep

In recent years, the Land Trust has made it a strategic priority to protect interconnecting lands, thereby preserving larger areas as a whole. For example, a corner of the Zeiners’ Dimmock Hollow Farm borders the 1,100-acre General Jacob Morris State Forest.

Similarly, an actively farmed easement owned by Peter Farmer and Abigail Armstrong in Phoenix Mills is adjacent to the Clark Foundation’s 600-acre “Grasslands” farm. “My folks bought the property in 1953, so I grew up here,” says Farmer. “It’s a sensitive area,” with its 1,000 feet of frontage on the Susquehanna River, oxbow slough wetland, and farmed acreage. The Huntington family of Cooperstown Holstein Corporation have grown alfalfa and corn on that land since the ‘70s. Remnant hops still grow on the back side of the easement, a tribute to the property’s agricultural history. “We wanted to keep it this way in perpetuity,” explains Farmer, so under the easement document, the couple allows “unrestricted farming” on their three parcels.